Methods for controlling the elastic damping characteristics of pneumatic seat suspensions

The pneumatic seat suspension is one of the most important, and in some situations, one of the key components of the vibration protection system for the human operator of the vehicle. At the present stage of scientific and technical activities of most developers, great emphasis is placed on controlled seat suspension systems, as the most promising systems. This article analyzes the methods of controlling the elastic damping characteristics of the air suspension of a vehicle seat. Ten dif-ferent and fairly well-known methods of changing the shape and parameters of elastic damping characteristics due to electro-pneumatic valves, throttles, motors, additional cavities, auxiliary mechanisms and other actuators were considered, the advantages, application limits and disad-vantages of each method were analyzed. Based on the results of the performed analytical procedure, as well as the recommendations known in the scientific and technical literature on improving the vibration-protective properties of suspension systems, the authors proposed and developed a new method for controlling the elastic-damping characteristic, which is implemented in the proposed technical solution for the air suspension of a vehicle seat. The method differs in the thing that it im-plements a cyclic controlled exchange of the working fluid between the cavities of the pneumatic elastic element and the additional volume of the receiver on the compression and rebound strokes, forming an almost symmetric elastic damping characteristic, and partial recuperation of vibrational energy by a pneumatic drive, presented in the form of a rotary type pneumatic motor. In addition, the method does not require an unregulated hydraulic shock absorber, while still having the ad-vantage of improved vibration-proof properties of the air suspension of a vehicle seat over a wide range of operating influences.